Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Thu, Jul 3, 2014
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
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Energy Services | Ergon | Hancock County | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Processing Plants | Washington County (OH) | West Virginia
New Condensate Processing Coming to Utica/Marcellus from Ergon
New condensate processing is on the way later this year from Ergon, Inc.–a company headquartered in Mississippi but with refineries and processing facilities in Ohio and West Virginia (and operations that include western Pennsylvania, Kentucky and New York). Ergon announced yesterday the company has spent over $75 million in the past two years to upgrade facilities, and continues to spend. Coming later this year is a 10,000 barrel per day condensate stabilization facility in Marietta, OH. Coming next year, the same kind of facility (also 10,000 bbl/d) in Newell, WV…
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One Step Closer: Williams Update on Purchase of Access Midstream
On Monday Williams issued a brief press announcement (below) to say they are one important step closer to purchasing and merging in Access Midstream–the former Chesapeake Midstream (see Big News: Williams Partners Buying Access Midstream for $6B). In fact, they’re a LOT closer…
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Federal Court Dismisses Doctor Lawsuit re Act 13 “Gag Rule”
The lawsuit brought by seven selfish towns against Pennsylvania’s Act 13 drilling law has had more twists and turns than a back road in the Pocono Mountains. The litigious towns, plus a doctor, sued over various provisions in the Act 13 law. The towns didn’t like being told they couldn’t zone drilling out of existence within their borders, and the doctor didn’t like being told he couldn’t blab drillers’ trade secrets all over the place. So it went to PA’s Supreme Court and they ruled in favor of the towns, but sent parts of the lawsuit back to a lower court, including the doctor’s portion (see Act 13 Goes Back to Lower Court, Disturbing Comments from Judge). A second lawsuit was filed by a different doctor along the same lines (so-called “gag rule”)…
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Anti Groups Seek to Help Those with Utica Drilling Grievances
Live in Ohio and feel like those big, nasty, greedy shale drillers have screwed you out of your version of the American dream? Feel like rent on your dumpy apartment is sky high because of an influx of “foreigners” (from Texas and Oklahoma) snapping up apartments, driving up prices? Did you sign a lease a year or two too early and found out if you’d waited, you could have gotten 10x what you got? The communistic-sounding Ohio Organizing Collaborative (OOC) and the Communities United for Responsible Energy (CURE) have a so-called town hall meeting just for you, on Thursday, July 10 in Carrollton, OH…
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Long Labor & Delivery: Seventy Seven Energy Born Yesterday
A few weeks ago MDN told you that Chesapeake Energy had gone into labor with the prospect of birthing a spinoff of their oilfield services division. At the time labor began, we thought (based on Chessy’s statements) that the new baby would be born sometime around June 17 (see Chesapeake Oilfield Services Birth Date: June 17, 2014). Looks like it was an unusually long labor and delivery for the new baby company. Seventy Seven Energy (SSE) was born yesterday, on July 1…
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Bloomberg: Natgas, Solar Big Winners for New Investment by 2030
Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) has just published a new report titled “2030 Market Outlook” in which they predict there will be $1.3 trillion of investment in new power generation capacity over the next 15 years. The big winner for that pile of new investment ($314 billion of it) will go to–you guessed it–natural gas-fired electric generating plants. Also a big winner, according to BNEF, will be solar ($231 billion for rooftop solar panels) and wind ($200 billion spent for onshore wind farms). BNEF also makes some gutsy predictions with respect to coal…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA
Yet Another “Natgas Worse than Coal” Study from Tony Ingraffea
Our old friend Tony “shut all fracking down” Ingraffea, who happens to (still) hold a job teaching at Cornell University, is back with yet another “research study” that (surprise!) bashes fracking. Or more properly shale drilling. This time around Tony, who has a lucrative side job by gallivanting from anti-drilling meeting to anti-drilling meeting to spread the word that fracking is evil (see Cornell Hydraulic Fracturing Expert Headlines First Meeting of New York Residents Against Drilling (NYRAD) in Vestal, NY), says shale wells have a higher rate of failure in the cement casings in Pennsylvania and he can prove it. How?…
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Electrical Generation | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Tennessee Gas Pipeline
Officials: New England Faces Blackouts Without New Nagas Pipeline
Listen up Massachusetts anti-drillers who don’t want Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline expansion running through your backyard (see Small Group in Ashfield, MA Vote to Oppose Kinder’s TGP Pipeline). Without that pipeline, you’re faced with impending blackouts. No electricity. For extended periods. And that’s according to the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources. At a joint meeting held in Manchaster, NH on Monday, officials warned that although there were no blackouts this past winter (a very brutal winter in New England), “That doesn’t mean that they can’t.”…
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Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Jul 2, 2014
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
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Alternative Energy | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Otsego County | Regulation | Statewide NY | Tompkins County
MDN Calls on NY Towns to Ban Windmills; Boycott Cooperstown
They’re noisy 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They use rare earth minerals in their manufacturing process and endanger Chinese workers who have to mine the toxic metals from the ground. They kill bald eagles and bats and all manner of birds. No one wants to live next to one going whup whup whup 24/7 (drives the neighbors insane). We’re talking of commercial windmills of course. Today MDN kicks off a campaign to get 170 New York townships to ban windmills. Oh, and while we’re at it, let’s also have town boards ban big solar farms too…
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Reaction to NY High Court’s Ill-fated Decision to Allow Town Bans
Yesterday MDN brought you the sad news that New York’s highest court has sided with towns giving them the right to completely ban shale drilling (see Shale Drilling in NY is Over – High Court Upholds Town Bans). Today we bring you reaction from several New York pro-drilling groups, along with quotes from others, both for and against drilling. This is a really bid deal–a “10” on the news scale. So we need to devote some time to reactions to the court’s ill-fated decision…
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PA Budget Passes House & Senate with No Severance Tax
Hats off to the Republican-controlled House and Senate in Pennsylvania. They passed a budget on time, before the midnight deadline last evening, and that budget contains just one new tax. Fortunately, it’s not a Marcellus Shale severance tax. So, kudos! However, the budget was not signed by PA Gov. Tom Corbett, also a Republican. He didn’t sign not because it because it didn’t include certain pension reforms he wants. One thing that the Democrats really wanted and the Republicans were only too happy to grant them: A new $2 per pack tax on cigarettes sold in Philadelphia, which is supposed to raise $80 million for Philly schools. Wait til they figure out everyone is fleeing to the suburbs to buy cheap cigs and the new tax fails!…
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SEC Investigates BlackRock over Dan Rice “Situation” 2 Years Ago
Some stories have a sad ending, and some stories have a happy ending. This is one of the later. Just over two years ago MDN told you the news that BlackRock, a big-time multinational investment firm, fired the single most successful mutual fund manager in the U.S. for ten years running–Daniel Rice III (see BlackRock’s Screw-up with Dan Rice & Rice Energy). Dan was the manager for five energy-related funds at BlackRock, making the company beaucoup bucks. Dan went to his bosses and told them he was helping his boys start up a new northeast shale drilling company–Rice Energy. He made full and timely disclosure of his extracurricular activities. His bosses did nothing–they kept quiet–and when “the market” learned of Dan’s potential conflict of interest by investing in (or withdrawing investments from) companies that may be competitive with Rice Energy, his bosses fired him. Now, two years later, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating…
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Anti-Drillers Try to Close Portage County, OH Injection Well
Two anti-drilling groups–Concerned Citizens of Ohio and the the Virginia-based Center for Health, Environment and Justice–have filed a reckless complaint with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency alleging an injection well in Portage County, OH has been illegally accepting millions of gallons of frack wastewater. The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) disagrees. Here’s a breakdown of the situation and the claims and counter claims…
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Another Supply Chain Success Story: Flagger Force
The ingenuity of small business people never ceases to amaze us–especially that of small businesses finding ways to serve, and profit from, the Marcellus and Utica Shale drilling industry. In business circles it’s called the “supply chain”–those companies who find ways of profiting from drilling. The latest company to do so is Flagger Force–a company based in Lancaster County, PA that sends out flaggers (to control traffic) in many surround states beside Pennsylvania. Flagger Force is also a major vendor for drillers in PA…
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New condensate processing is on the way later this year from Ergon, Inc.–a company headquartered in Mississippi but with refineries and processing facilities in Ohio and West Virginia (and operations that include western Pennsylvania, Kentucky and New York). Ergon announced yesterday the company has spent over $75 million in the past two years to upgrade facilities, and continues to spend. Coming later this year is a 10,000 barrel per day condensate stabilization facility in Marietta, OH. Coming next year, the same kind of facility (also 10,000 bbl/d) in Newell, WV…